In back to my eternal Paris, oh well yes indeed. If someone invented the idea of a city then it definitively should have taken Paris as a model. I am doing this post thanks to a picture found in my cd rom vault that should be in my blog for you and me. The task is huge so the text is translated from their official site. This have passed several times and of course needed to take a picture for all times sake, Therefore, here is my take on the manufacture des Gobelins of Paris !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I
The manufacture des Gobelins is a tapestry factory located at 42 Avenue des Gobelins in the 13éme arrondissement or district of Paris. You can get here on metro Les Gobelins of line 7 or metro Place d’Italie lines 5,6, and 7 as well as bus lines 27,47,59, and 83.
Since 1662, when Colbert decided to consolidate the Parisian workshops under one roof, the world-famous Gobelins Manufactory has continued to leave its mark on the history of tapestry. The buildings of the Gobelins Manufactory, spread around several courtyards, date back in part to the 17C. At its center is an elongated building decorated with trophies and garlands on its south facade. This is the former home of Charles Le Brun, the first director of the factory, who died there in 1690. Opposite it, the very long ground-floor building with yellow walls housed the high-warp workshop of the tapestry maker Jean Jans, active from 1662 to 1668. This is now one of the two workshops of the Gobelins Factory. In the Colbert courtyard stands the former chapel of the factory ;Saint-Louis chapel, built in 1723 for the Gobelins weavers, which has retained its interior decor from the period, including a stuccoed cornice. Deconsecrated in the 1960s, it now houses both heritage tapestries and works by contemporary artists focused on the sacred. To the right of the Saint-Louis chapel lies the dyeing workshop, occupied in the 19C by the chemist Eugène Chevreul , which is still in operation. Along the Avenue des Gobelins, the “Gobelins” gallery, made of brick and stone, dates from 1914. It was built according to the plans of the architect Jean-Camille Formigé, at the initiative of the critic Gustave Geffroy, appointed administrator of the Gobelins in 1908. On the main façade, we can see four caryatids by Antoine Injalbert and a bas-relief sculpted by Paul Landowski: The Triumph of Art; as well as eight medallions, The Spinner, Dyeing, Cardboard, Tapestry… by Louis Convers and Jean Hugues, which pay homage to the different trades and stages of weaving.
A bit of history I like tell us the Gobelins family began in the 15C. Jehan Gobelin, originally from Reims, established a dyeing workshop somewhere in the Faubourg Saint-Marceau (now the Faubourg Saint-Marcel). A few decades later, his descendants acquired vast plots of land on the banks of the Bièvre, whose waters were renowned for their dyeing qualities. They built vast workshops there. In the early years of the 17C, King Henry IV, on the advice of Sully, implemented an ambitious program to develop manufacturing in the Kingdom of France. The aim was to limit as much as possible the purchase of manufactured goods from abroad, primarily tapestries and carpets, which were in great demand by the sovereign and court. Also, the “good king” had tapestry workshops set up in the Saint-Marceau suburb, in buildings rented from the descendants of the Gobelin dyers, run by two Flemish, Marc de Comans and François de la Planche.
In 1662, Colbert bought the property for the Crown and consolidated the various workshops. Charles Le Brun, first painter to Louis XIV, was its first director. Between 1717 and 1794, The Story of Don Quixote after Charles-Antoine Coypel was woven many times. The Surroundings corresponded to a fashionable Gobelins invention: a very rich frame of flowers and ornaments, in the center of which is placed a historiated subject. The factory also continued to weave in the tradition of large tapestries of religious, historical or mythological inspiration, such as The Story of Esther and The Story of Jason after Jean-François de Troy. François Boucher, Madame de Pompadour’s favorite painter, had Sunrise and Sunset woven, as well as the very famous Tapestry of the Gods, in 1763. Portrait tapestries were also quite successful, including, for example, the portrait of Louis XV after the painting by Louis-Michel Van Loo, woven in 1763.
After the French revolution, tapestries were to glorify Napoleon’s reign. The tradition of official visits resumed, and the Emperor offered the Pope a New Testament hanging for his visit in 1805. Until the Second Empire, the taste for portraits did not diminish: twenty-eight were notably produced for the Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre. Contemporary painters also made their contributions. Between 1818 and 1827, the workshops devoted themselves to the creation of the hanging of The Battle of Tolosa, after Horace Vernet. Attached to the administration of the Mobilier National since 1937, the Manufacture nationale des Gobelins weaves, as it did four centuries ago, tapestries based on contemporary works, thus demonstrating the multiple possibilities of a mode of expression open to all aesthetic and contemporary trends. Today, the workshops of the Manufacture nationale des Gobelins employ 30 persons, and have 15 looms. Each year, six to seven pieces “fall from the loom.”
A bit expanded text to give on the nice avenue des Gobelins of the 13éme and 5éme arrondissement or districts of Paris, This street is located in the extension of Rue Mouffetard, at the intersection of Rue Monge and Rue Claude-Bernard (5eme arrondissement) and rising to Place d’Italie (13éme arrondissement). It is so named because it runs alongside the buildings of the Gobelins factory. Straddling three neighborhoods, Avenue des Gobelins, which begins at the Church Saint-Médard (see post), benefits from the lively atmosphere, the merchants, the market, and the setting of the lower Mouffetard quartier or neighborhood. In its upper section near Place d’Italie, it is a street lined with restaurants and cinemas. Notable buildings here are : The painter Marcelle Rondenay was born at no 18 in 1880. The Gobelins factory located at no 42. The writer Louis Mairet was born there in 1894 and the historian Gustave Geffroy died at this number in 1926. At no 32, the remains of the house where Charles Le Brun lived remain. At no 46 is the approximate site of number 264 rue Mouffetard where the architect Charles Garnier was born on November 5, 1825 (house demolished in 1868). At no 58: the Pathé Les Fauvettes, a Pathé network movie theater, inaugurated on November 6, 2015 and occupying the site of the former Gaumont Gobelins in 1992, it became the Gaumont Gobelins multiplex. At no 73 of the avenue is the former Théâtre des Gobelins. This performance hall was built in 1869. The facade decoration was entrusted to a young, then unknown sculptor, Auguste Rodin, who presents on one side The Drama (the man) and on the other The Comedy (the woman). From 2011, the building was completely destroyed and rebuilt to house the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation. The City/town hall of the 13éme arrondissement at the exit onto Place d’Italie.
The official Manufacture des Gobelins of Paris: https://www.mobiliernational.culture.gouv.fr/fr/nous-connaitre/les-manufactures/manufacture-des-gobelins
The Paris tourist office on the Manufacture des Gobelins of Paris : https://parisjetaime.com/eng/culture/mobilier-national-les-gobelins-p964
The Paris tourist office on walks in the 13éme arrondissement of Paris : https://parisjetaime.com/eng/article/a-walk-through-the%20villages-of-the-13th-arrondissement-a775
There you go folks, a wonderful spot in my eternal Paris. This is the wonderful building , an off the beaten path site that merits a visit ,me think. It will take more than a post to tell you all about the wonders of Paris, but I am working on it ! Again, hope you enjoy this post on the manufacture des Gobelins of Paris !!! as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 